DIY Door Catch

[velocistar237]

I installed some French doors. I started over a year ago, and I've had a lot of help from friends. I'd like to finish it up, but I'm not sure what to do about the door catch. I bought a pair of these, but they're too long. Ideally, the doors would be almost flat against the wall, with the face of the door one inch from the baseboard, when fully open, in order to save space in our small apartment, and to keep the handle from touching the wall. Right now, I just stick a folded washcloth underneath to keep it from swinging away from the wall.

Nothing on the market seems like it would fit. I'd rather not screw anything into the floor. I've tried to think of a way to mount a magnet in a block of wood, but I'm afraid it would be ugly. Any suggestions?

[tfordon]

I know you said you didn't want to screw anything into the floor, but these look pretty unobtrusive if you do go that route.

[tannybrown]

I don't have a real suggestion (maybe a strong magnet behind the drywall?  or placed in the door itself?) -- just a compliment on the floors.  They're beautiful.

[Guitarist]

They make "plates" you can install on your wall so that the door handle doesn't put a hole in the wall. I see them in office spaces quite a bit. That should be all you need as the handle would get to the wall first.

[shedinator]

What about something to catch the handle? I'm having trouble finding something like this on the web, but I'm imagining something similar to a carabiner, padded on the inside, set up facing away from the wall so that when you open the door, the handle latches inside. In order to release it, you'd just have to press down the spring-loaded part of the mechanism and shut your door. A standard carabiner likely wouldn't do the trick, but if you did something that was a little larger, more of a C-shape, with a relatively smaller mouth, I think it'd work.

[velocistar237]

I'm liking this handle idea. If the handle is brass-plated steel, maybe I can put a magnet behind a handle strike plate. It doesn't really have to be that strong, and in fact, if it were too strong, it might hurt the door. The magnetic catch I bought even has a spring to soften the impact. I will have to test this tonight.

[Welmoed]

I know you said you didn't want to install anything in the floor, but I thought I'd share how we tackled the same issue of holding a door open. We have two doors on either side of a bay window and installed these brass latches to act as both "keep opens" and "anti-bumps." Our floors are the original 1942 white oak.
--Welmoed

[reverend]

Depending on  how you use the doors, you could move the hinges ever so slightly so the doors WANT to stay open. It will angle the door a little bit, but if you're REAL careful with a level it could be damn near invisible and yet the door stays open when you open it all the way.

I'm not talking about a door that opens on its own if you let it, but one that just stays in the open position once you open it. Then you just put a small bump-stop (small rubber piece?) down low between the door and wall.

[Spork]

Depending on  how you use the doors, you could move the hinges ever so slightly so the doors WANT to stay open. It will angle the door a little bit, but if you're REAL careful with a level it could be damn near invisible and yet the door stays open when you open it all the way.

I'm not talking about a door that opens on its own if you let it, but one that just stays in the open position once you open it. Then you just put a small bump-stop (small rubber piece?) down low between the door and wall.

This. 

It sounds like your door is wanting to swing closed?  Ideally the door should sit dead still where ever you put it.  If not, then your door is not installed plumb.

If you don't like the standard door stop because it doesn't open far enough, consider a hinge stop.  You can adjust that to pretty much any opening width.

[Fishindude]

You need a "wall bump" which will prevent damage to the wall from door handle, then "kick down, hold open device" to hold the door open, in place.